GX presents Fontys
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Smarter orientation, stronger enrolment: personalizing student journeys
Fontys is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands, offering a wide portfolio of bachelor’s, master’s and professional programs across multiple campuses. With so many choices, prospective students can easily feel overwhelmed. Fontys set out to make orientation simpler and far more relevant: show the right study to the right person at the right moment.
Know your audience, shape their journey
Segmentation is organized around three primary audiences:
- Regular students (bachelor & master candidates)
- International students (English-taught programs)
- Professionals (working learners)
Using a unified data layer, CRM (Sage) and SIS (Progress) records are combined with real-time web behavior captured by BlueConic listeners, and enriched with signals like prior education, program interest, and event engagement. Profiles are mapped to five lifecycle stages and dynamically segmented by behavioral, demographic, intent-based, and AI-driven look-alikes. These segments update in real time and power personalized touchpoints across web, email, and onboarding flows.
Technical foundation
Fontys built a data layer connecting CRM, SIS, web analytics, and interaction data to BlueConic (CDP). Real-time listeners capture behavior, while profile enrichment combines hard and soft data. Dynamic segmentation allows actionable insights by lifecycle stage, and AI algorithms support look-alike modeling and personalized recommendations. Faculties now have dashboards showing study interest, previous education, and funnel progression.
Personalizing each customer journey
All collected data creates a living student profile, which drives personalized touchpoints throughout the funnel. Visitors receive targeted invitations to relevant events like open days or student-for-a-day experiences. Homepages adapt to interests and stage, with AI suggesting related programmes. Conversion is supported through pre-filled forms and personalized FAQs, reducing friction. After registration, tailored onboarding flows provide housing tips, checklists, and study-specific information. Even micro-interventions, such as pop-ups for housing or targeted event promotions, are triggered by real-time signals.
Across all digital touchpoints, personalization is applied to everything from the homepage and content recommendations to dynamic FAQs, interactive forms, and AI-powered program suggestions. Interventions are guided by the five lifecycle stages—from anonymous visitor to enrolled student—ensuring relevance at every step.
Long story short
By unifying data, enriching profiles, and activating personalised dialogues, Fontys turned a fragmented browse experience into a guided orientation funnel. Prospective students now receive relevant invitations, tailored content and practical onboarding — which means higher event attendance, clearer choices and a shorter path to enrollment.
Vivian Slegers
Consultant Marketing & Communicatie FontysOur collaboration with GX and BlueConic has taken website personalization to the next level. It not only made the online journey more relevant for every prospective student but also gave us invaluable insights into the entire recruitment funnel and our key audience segments.
Ready to make the same impact?
Personalized journeys transform casual visitors into committed students (or customers). By removing friction, delivering the right message at the right moment, and giving your teams clear, actionable insight, you boost conversion, reduce support costs, strengthen retention, and make faster data-driven decisions — all on a platform that scales with your ambitions.
Hanneke Kuipers
Managing Director Data ServicesReady to make every customer journey personal? Let’s talk